The week started in Bangkok, finishing up an epic two-week trip that allowed me to explore new opportunities throughout Asia.

Days before the flights back to San Francisco, I mapped out the perfect plan to transition back into the Pacific Time Zone with zero pain. There was the layover in Seattle, which allowed me to walk off the plane mid-afternoon, after nearly 20 hours in airports and airplanes. An early dinner with friends would expel any remaining energy and then bed at a reasonable time so that I could catch the early flight the next day. The following day was an easy flight to SFO, landing early enough to hit the ground running, without delay and finish up the week strong.

Plan interrupted. Twice

The first challenge to the perfect plan came when I laid my exhausted body down to sleep in Seattle, as my mind was racing from all the inputs over the previous 16 days, it just kept going and going and going, like that damn Energizer Bunny. There was a ton of excitement keeping me from sleeping more than a couple hours.

I’m thinking, “this is not a problem,” and I was physically able to complete what quickly became an overscheduled day, but mentally, not so much. It was not my best performance. And then, the second night of sketchy sleep happened, and things started to get rough. I was determined not to let jet lag win. I have always been able to hit the ground running after international flights, and this time it was clear that the ground was hitting me square in the face.

Lack of sleep was yielding poor decisions. I was trying to balance caffeine and caloric intake, along with the to-do list that was quickly becoming the “I just can’t right now” list. Everything was in chaos. I have all the tools to overcome periods of time that are challenging; I was so tired that I wasn’t able to reach for those tools, like meditation, running or cycling, being creative, etc. My ability to think logically was gone.

Finally, it was time to give in

It required a reset, and it had gotten so bad that one night of good sleep wasn’t going to correct the exhaustion. The to-do list was no longer important, and it was time to sit down, let things go, laugh, eat, and fire up NetFlix. Recover.

Falling back on lessons learned while training to complete Ironman events, rest days are strategically placed into the training schedule so that the muscles have time to grow and get stronger. This planning provides for better performance and fewer injuries. My eagerness to “push on regardless” ignored a key lesson: Rest is productive.

The lesson her

Pushing through isn’t the answer. Studies show that adding stress to the tired mind will significantly reduce your ability use your logic skills to problem solve.The result is a significantly lower productivity. Don’t ignore the signs of exhaustion, make sure you are taking the time to recover.